Country Report on multilingual issues

ESTONIA

1. Introduction

Estonia has about 1.351 million inhabitants (as of 01.01.2005). Largest ethnic groups are
Estonians (68%), Russians (26%), Ukrainians (2%), Belarussians (1%) and Finns (1%).

Estonian is the only official language in Estonia in local government and state
institutions. The Estonian language belongs to the Finno-Ugric language family and is
closely related to Finnish. Along with Finnish, English, Russian and German are also widely
spoken and understood.

2. Multilingual websites of cultural institutions

In 2004, 8 Estonian institutions took part in the MINERVA survey of multilingualism in

cultural websites. These included 2 archives, 1 library, 4 museums and 1 other cultural
organisation:
Estonian State Archives
Estonian Historical Archives
National Library of Estonia
Estonian Theatre and Music Museum
Estonian National Museum
The Art Museum of Tartu
Estonian Museum of Applied Art and Design
Conservation Centre Kanut

Seeing that it is not a representative sample we decided to study some additional websites via
the Internet. These included 30 museums (museums within the government of the Ministry of
Culture, county museums, municipal museums that are financed by the Ministry of Culture),
20 libraries (research and special libraries, central libraries) and 4 archives (governmental
and national archival institutions).

Search
Est Eng Rus Ger Fin tools
Museums within the government of the Ministry of Culture:
Central museums:
Art Museum of
Estonia http://www.ekm.ee/ + + -
Estonian Health
Care Museum http://www.tervishoiumuuseum.ee/ + + + -
Estonian History
Museum http://www.eam.ee/ + + -
Estonian Maritime
Museum http://www.meremuuseum.ee/ + -
Estonian
National Museum http://www.erm.ee/ + + + + free text

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Estonian Open Air
Museum http://www.evm.ee/ + + + -
Estonian Sports
Museum http://www.spordimuuseum.ee/ + -
Estonian Theatre
and Music
Museum http://www.tmm.ee/ + -
Museum of
Estonian
Architecture http://www.arhitektuurimuuseum.ee/ + + -
State museums:
Estonian Museum
of Applied Art and
Design http://www.etdm.ee/ + + free text
Tartu Art Museum http://www.tartmus.ee/ + -
County museums:
Harjumaa Museum http://www.muuseum.harju.ee/ + + -
Hiiumaa Museum http://www.muuseum.hiiumaa.ee/ + -
Iisaku Museum http://www.hot.ee/iisakumuuseum/ + -
Järvamaa Museum http://www.jarva.ee/?CatID=201 + + + + free text
Läänemaa
Museum http://www.muuseum.haapsalu.ee/ + free text
Mahtra Peasantry
Museum http://www.hot.ee/mahtram/ + + -
Memorial Museum
of Dr. Fr. R.
Kreutzwald http://www.hot.ee/muuseumvoru/ + -
Parish School
Museum of Oskar
Luts at Palamuse http://www.palmuseum.ee/ + + + + + -
Põlva Peasantry
Museum http://talurahvamuuseum.polvamaa.ee/ + free text
Pärnu Museum http://www.pernau.ee/ + + -
Saaremaa Museum http://www.saaremaamuuseum.ee/ + + -
Tartumaa Museum http://www.tartumaamuuseum.ee/ + -
Valga Museum http://www.valgamuuseum.ee/ + -
Viljandi Museum http://www.muuseum.viljandimaa.ee/ + + free text
Foundations:
Anton Hansen
Tammsaare
Museum at
Vargamäe http://ice.estnet.ee/albuvv/?id=257 + -
Museums of
Virumaa http://www.svm.ee/ + + -
Municipal museums:
Juhan Liiv
Museum http://www.muusa.ee/ + -
Muhu Museum http://www.muhumuuseum.ee/ + + -
Setu Farm
Museum http://www.hot.ee/setomuuseum/ + + -
Libraries:
Research and
special libraries:
Academic Library
of Tallinn
University http://www.tulib.ee/ + free text
Estonian National
Library http://www.nlib.ee/ + + free text

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Estonian
Repository Library http://www.hoiuraamatukogu.ee/ + -
Tartu University
Library http://www.utlib.ee/ + + + -
Central libraries:
Harju County
Library -
Jõgeva County
Central Library http://www.poltsamaa.ee/index.php?lang=est&main_id=72,661,664 + -
Jõhvi Central
Library -
Järva County
Central Library http://raamat.paide.ee/ + -
Kohtla-Järve
Central Library http://k-jarve.lib.ee/ + + -
Kõrveküla
Library / Tartu
County Central
Library http://tmk.tartuvv.ee/tmk/ + free text
Kärdla Central
Library -
Lääne County
Central Library http://www.lib.haapsalu.ee/ + + + -
Lääne-Viru County
Central Library http://www.lvkrk.ee/ + -
Narva Central
Library -
Põlva Central
Library http://www.raamat.polva.ee/ + + + -
Pärnu Central
Library http://www.pkr.ee/ + -
Rapla Central
Library http://www.raplakrk.ee/ + -
Saare County
Central Library http://www.kuressaare.ee/skr/ + + -
Sillamäe City
Central Library http://www.slib.ee/ + + free text
Tallinn Central
Library http://www.keskraamatukogu.ee/ + -
Tartu City Central
Library http://www.luts.ee/ + + free text
Valga Central
Library http://www.valgark.ee/ + -
Viljandi City
Library http://www.raamatukogu.viljandi.ee/ + + free text
Võru County
Central Library http://lib.werro.ee/ + free text
Archives:
Governmental and national archival institutions:
Estonian
Filmarchive http://www.filmi.arhiiv.ee/ + + free text
Estonian Historical
Archives http://www.eha.ee/ + + + -
Estonian State
Archives http://www.riigi.arhiiv.ee/ + + + free text
National Archives
of Estonia http://www.ra.ee/ + + -

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24 of these websites were monolingual while 30 were multilingual as follows:

 20 sites were available in 2 languages

 7 sites were available in 3 languages
 2 site was available in 4 languages
 1 site was available in 5 languages

4 foreign languages were represented including English (28), Russian (9), German (4) and
Finnish (3). The extent to which the contents are available in these languages varies.
On the web pages there are many signs of work-in-progress: pages in other languages being
announced or in an early stage of development.
At present there are no multilingual thesauri in use on the Web by any Estonian cultural
institution. 15 sites provide free text search.

3. Best practices:

Estonian National Museum (www.erm.ee) – The full contents of the site are available in
Estonian, English, Finnish and Russian.

Marju Reismaa
Specialist, Cultural Heritage Department
Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Estonia

July 12, 2005